While no attacks have been documented, Secunia reports that iDefense and eEye Digital Security have found a highly critical flaw in RealPlayer. Several versions of RealOne and RealPlayer have been found to have a buffer overflow vulnerability that could allow remote execution of arbitrary code on a victim's system. RealNetworks has confirmed the problem and has issued a patch. See our Security Bulletins section for more information.

Microsoft's Patch Tuesday brought the release of two moderate severity level patches. For most users, the first security bulletin, MS04-016, only applies if you play multi-user online games or use graphics packages that use iDirectPlay4, a component in DirectX versions 7.0  9.0b. The other security bulletin is with 3rd party .NET application Crystal Reports. The flaw can allow an attacker to view and delete a users files, and DoS attacks, but is mostly a server side problem and won't affect most users. See our Security Bulletins and Updates section for more on this.

A newly discovered flaw in Internet Explorer can give phishers yet another tool for spoofing, even in a fully patched version of IE. The vulnerability can allow an attacker to gain privileged access to a victim's system though a flaw in IE's security zone handling. For more information, see our top threat.

Another unpatched vulnerability in Internet Explorer is currently being used by malicious web sites to install adware on unsuspecting users machines. The flaw is rated extremely critical by in a Secunia report, and several websites have been documented as using the exploit. For more information see our Security Bulletins and Updates section.

New and existing viruses and worm variants have been growing at two or so a day, but thankfully been rather benign. In the past week, we've seen new variants of older worms, Sober.H, Korgo.I and Gaobot.AQS, none of which have been very widespread. McAfee lowered their severity rating of Sasser.worm.e, while Symantec renamed Sasser.E to Sasser.G, though retaining the same moderate rating.

Of the new viruses, none have really shown much strength. One worm, VBS/Pub, discovered on June 5th by Symantec, and later listed by other AV companies, made the news as the "hoax that happened." For years we've seen e-mail hoaxes such as "Guts to Say Jesus" that purports to erase your hard disk if opened. Most vendors are reporting VBS/Pub, also known as Redlof.I, concatenates its infecting script code onto .ASP, .HTML or .VBS (as well as variations of these) files. However, according to Symantec, this new VBS/Pub will also delete all files on your hard drive on the 6th, 13th,21st, or 28th day of the month. Though scary sounding, the worm is a low risk, and apparently has flaws in its code, limiting its ability to spread.

However older, more tenacious worms are still topping the charts, including Netsky.P , Sasser.B and Korgo.F. Netsky.P is still menacing e-mail users, though all antivirus products should be able to detect and block it. For Windows XP users who have not applied the April security bulletin MS04-011 patch, Sasser.B, Korgo.F, as well as a pack of other wannabes are going to be a threat. One reader we spoke with said his mother's un-patched machine was being attacked to the point of un-usability. E-mail borne viruses are still avoidable by keeping your antivirus products up to date, and just saying no to zip and executable attachments.

The Nigeria scam could possibly be the oldest mail scam (both e-mail and snail mail) known to man or woman. That doesn't seem to deter new twists, as we've seen several different ones recently. The latest version we saw purportedly comes from a Mr. Frank Kaki in Iraq. Like the traditional Nigerian scam, it pitches the idea of victims moving large sums of money into their bank accounts so it can be safely transferred out of the country. Victims are promised a percentage of the cash for their trouble. On the version we saw, the return address did not agree with the address provided in the body of the message, though both were from a free Yahoo address. While it seems obvious that this is a scam, there have been many documented cases of people actually being taken by it. We found a good web site that offers dozens of links to sites and resources on these "crimes of persuasion".

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